Budget cuts: Treasury slashed Judiciary’s budget by Sh3 billion

More than 15,000 cases were suspended yesterday after dozens of courts around the country shut down over crippling budget cuts.

Of these, 10,000 are pending cases in tribunals. They include those on rent restrictions, business premises and cooperatives. Also affected are 5,598 cases in mobile courts around the country. Significantly, all benches constituted to hear cases (often comprising three to five judges) are not sitting, according to our sources who could not be named because they are not authorised to speak to the media on the matter.

Also suspended indefinitely is the Service Week, which judges and magistrates use to speed up hearing of cases to clear backlog. Chief Registrar of the Judiciary Ann Amadi declined to comment, citing the case filed by the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) challenging the budget cuts.

Treasury slashed Judiciary’s budget by Sh3 billion last month, citing revenue shortfalls and need to raise funds for President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four agenda. It squeezed Sh131 billion from different Government agencies.

The Judiciary had requested Sh31.2 billion, but Parliament allocated it Sh14.5 billion, which Treasury has now slashed to Sh11.5 billion.

Yesterday, the Labour Court in Malindi and High Court in Nakuru suspended sittings, with public notices sent out citing budgetary constraints. Court officers and judges who spoke to The Standard warned of an imminent collapse of the justice system if the crisis is not urgently addressed. This is the first time the country is staring at total paralysis in the Judiciary due to lack of money.

The shutdown has also affected 60 mobile courts established to help reach remote regions from Lamu, Isiolo, Lodwar, Garissa and Moyale to Malindi. In these mobile courts, at least 5,598 cases will remain in abeyance until the standoff is resolved. Mobile courts majorly operate in pastoral areas, while others sit to determine traffic cases.

“All our courts are affected. It is a real problem that needs to be addressed urgently,” a senior officer said.

Macharia Njeru, a commissioner with the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), condemned the cuts as self-defeating. “Administration of justice is critical for the rule of law and sustainability of the economy of our country. As is, the budget allocated to Judiciary was inadequate. To cut it even further can only have the effect of grinding to a halt the operations of this critical arm of Government. This is unacceptable, coming against a backdrop of the backlog of cases the Judiciary is grappling with,” said Mr Njeru, who represents the Law Society of Kenya in the JSC.

He said the budget cuts came as a shocker to the JSC, adding that the move was illegal and undermined the prospect of the country having a robust, dependable and independent Judiciary.

LSK Mombasa branch chairman Matthew Nyabena called for suspension of the cuts to pave way for consultations.

“The unilateral action by Treasury without due consultation with Judiciary continues to visit undue hardship on already impoverished citizens. A case in point is where the sacked employees seeking to enforce their rights in the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Malindi were this morning required to travel to Mombasa for hearing of the cases,” he said. Mr Nyabena said they were consulting members for the appropriate action to take.

Cash crunch

Two notices - one by Malindi Labour Court and another by Nakuru High Court registrars, notified litigants that they would not be heard due to lack of judges, occasioned by the cash crunch.

Among the cases affected yesterday was one by Mau Forest evictees. Three High Court judges Justices Sila Munyao (presiding), Mohammed Kullow and George Ong’ondo were to hear the case. However, the deputy registrar notified parties that the bench would not be sitting.

“Due to the Judiciary budget cut, we have been unable to facilitate the three-judge bench scheduled for October 28, 2019. Parties will be notified of the new dates through their advocates once the directions are given. Any inconvenience is highly regretted,” the notice read.

In Malindi, all cases were shifted to the Mombasa Court over the same reason.

LSK in court

“Kindly note that due to the recent Judiciary budget cuts, the Employment and Labour Relations Court will be sitting in Mombasa during the period of October 28 to November 1, 2019, and not Malindi as earlier scheduled. All parties are advised to go to the Mombasa Employment and Labour Relations Court, where matters will be heard before Justice Riika,” a notice to litigants dated October 24, 2019 read.

National Civil Aviation Administrative Review Tribunal, National Environment Tribunal and Co-operative Tribunal have also issued distress notices.

This came as the LSK moved to court to quash Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yattani’s circular issued on September 14, 2019.

“There seems to be an upward trend of misappropriation of public funds set aside for various arms of Government, which in turn leads to directives for unexplained and unforeseen budget cuts to cover up the missing funds without the regard to the provisions of the Constitution and approved legitimate expenditures of the affected parties and organs of the Government,” argued LSK CEO Mercy Wambua.